Okay, that was nothing less than horrifying. "I'm sorry, judge, I emptied a couple of clips into the cops because I was scared. And drunk out of my mind." He's lucky they pulled tasers first instead of 9 mms.

Carl Spackler wrote:We now have people calling 911 at McDonald's drive-thru because their order is wrong. If I did that I be a frequent flier with 911 each time an order was wrong/incomplete.

Most sensible people do not verbally accost people on the street about imagined offenses/wrongdoing/etc. A few do and more so now than in the past. Some are emboldened for some reason to strike out as judge of the world.

It makes for an intervention where none was required. Like a baby pulling socks off is a new crime. Wow, guilty as charged, lock us up.

Some years ago, I was shopping at Lowes and took notice of a young couple with two restless kids trailing them as they shopped. I took note because the kids, who appeared to around five or six years of age, were whiny and restless. They turned the corner into the next isle and a moment later, I heard a piercing scream followed by a moment of silence followed by child crying hysterically. I quickly turned the corner and walked to the next isle to see what was happening. The little girl sat on the floor crying her eyes out while the father stood over her looking extremely pissed. I stopped. He looked at me with a face that said "don't even!" I didn't see what caused the incident and could only speculate on the cause. In that moment, I decided to move on. I have often debated the issue in my head as to whether I should have challenged the guy or reported abuse that I hadn't witnessed. Each time, I come up with a different answer. But what haunts me is whether and/or what kind of abuse that little girl might have suffered at home. And could I have done something to help stop it.

That's a tough one Mad. You didn't actually see anything so I don't know if even saying something to somebody else would have mattered one iota. I think there are few things in life more sad than seeing a kid in some sort of environment or predicament and all you can think to yourself is "that kid has no shot". Like the other night when I was coming home from my second job at 3 in the morning and I see a woman pushing a baby stroller with an infant into the Wawa. No chance.

I remember when I was about 10 I was at the grocery store with my dad. There was some guy there with another kid probably about 4 years old. This "dad" was cussing the kid, yanking him so hard by his arm his feet were barely on the ground etc. My dad, a pretty "live and let live" kind of man goes up to the guy and says "why don't you take it easy". Of course the response he gets is "it's none of your business". And my dad says "when that kid grows up to hate everybody and everything it will be my business. So stop it. Now." The guy looked my dad over and seemed to shrink two sizes and he went on his way. That left quite an impression on me.

Then again, there was the time my youngest was 3 or 4 and we were in a local hardware store. I let him sit on a rider mover and he was in 7th Heaven. He did NOT want to get off. But we had to go. I finally pulled him off and headed for the exit with him in my arms, at which point he started screaming Help! Help! I have no idea where that came from.

The store manager and another employee rushed over to stop me from leaving. Great, I thought. I'm going to get tazered for being a child kidnapper / pervert. By an amazing and fortunate coincidence, a long-time co-worker of mine was in the store and saw what happened. When he stopped convulsing with laughter, he vouched for me.

When my oldest was around 2 and in diapers my wife and a neighbor with a son who was born a week after my son went to the Bronx Zoo. Neighbor's son needed to be changed so neighbor takes him off to the side to do so. The kid starts screaming "don't touch my penis!" At the top of his lungs. Screams it the whole time she's changing it. It drew a crowd, as you can imagine. Someone threatened to call security but nothing happened.

Generally, people who abuse kids don't do it in stores. There are exceptions, but usually a kid crying has a reasonable explanation.

Blue&White wrote:When my oldest was around 2 and in diapers my wife and a neighbor with a son who was born a week after my son went to the Bronx Zoo. Neighbor's son needed to be changed so neighbor takes him off to the side to do so. The kid starts screaming "don't touch my penis!" At the top of his lungs. Screams it the whole time she's changing it. It drew a crowd, as you can imagine. Someone threatened to call security but nothing happened.

Generally, people who abuse kids don't do it in stores. There are exceptions, but usually a kid crying has a reasonable explanation.

Common sense needs to be applied at some point. It is a lost art. It's been replaced by zero tolerance, the ultimate cop-out to common sense and supervisory responsibility in a free society. No decision making in a case by case basis because its one size fits all zero tolerance. Which is nice because it works so well in all situations e.g. "don't touch my penis" should the police have been called, then the social workers, then the court, then.......

So I got that going for me...which is nice.It's a cross between Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent and Northern California Sensimilla so you can play 36 holes on it,take it home at night and get stoned to the begesses belt

Evidently there was some concern yesterday that the guy who stole the plane from the Seattle airport may try to crash it into the Pearl Jam concert at Safeco. They even scrambled jet fighters in case of that.

Just watched the video. And, I'm sorry, but the implication that because police work is dangerous it's a defense to cops shooting unarmed people is completely assine.

As for that incident, those cops showed tremendous restraint. I'm glad they both lived and that they caught the bastard. But, that is not a justification for other actions. It's not.

My point for writing that is that we (posters on this board for the most part) all go to work and we will 100% get to work and come home from our job! When humans head into fight or flight mode there are emotions that are tough to control. There was a Lancaster policeman who was tasered because he didn't listen to commands. Again, I think the cop should have dealt with it differently but the police are trained to be militaristic.

First, I understood exactly what your original point was, and it's not what you just said. Second, the police are not trained, or at least are not supposed to be trained, to be militaristic. They are not supposed to be a branch of the military and certainly should not be acting like one. Finally, while being a cop can be a dangerous job, they are not supposed to just start shooting.

This video is an example of where they did it right and, unfortunately, things went horribly wrong. But, it's not a justification for shooting people who don't listen.